Park Chung-Ho drew the vial containing the shards of the dreamcatcher's bead out of his jeans.
"You told me that this could be useful. And that I should learn the story of the dreamcatcher that contained this bead. Now that you're saying that it worked better than you imagined, maybe it's the right moment to tell me it's story, what do think?"
Sasha looked Diane as if hé was asking "may I?"
"I met your parents, too. They helped me, along with Diane, when I made a terrible mistake." He looked at the young man and nodded while he added. "Don't worry. This has a link with your dreamcatcher."
"I wasn't worried. I'm glad you both share your past with me to get me to know my parents better."
"Diane told you what sacrifices can look like. I did one too, and it turned out very complicated. They helped me defeat the nightmare I had brought to the physical world."
"So nightmares and dreams can enter the physical world when a sacrifice is made, but they can be defeated. That's good to know."
"You have heard about the hunters already. They can either hunt in the Dream or the Physical Realm. Sacrifices should be avoided. But there are a lot of dreamers who aren't aware of this. Anyway... Your parents and Diane came to my hometown, New Brighton, in Minnesota."
Park Chung-Ho remembered his first impression of Sasha. He thought he came from a Native tribe in Canada. It wasn't that far, though.
"My family was the best hunters' family in the country. I had a ritual to perform to become a hunter myself. My task was to track a Windigo. I got lost in the depths of the lowest layer I could go to. You may know it, time flows differently in the Dream Realm. My hunt was complicated, and I didn't know I had spent 3 days sleeping. My family sent reinforcements. When they arrived, I had found the track of the beast, but I was too late. I had been tasked to track and kill it and failed in my duty. It had captured a dreamer who made a sacrifice. Before we could capture the beast in the physical realm, we noticed there were more in the dream realm. We needed more hunters. That's when we called your parents and Diane..."
When she heard her name, the woman stood up, and the dancing flames added a dramatic effect.
"This was the hunt I talked to you about..." she said. "This is where I got lost. We had been called for help, and we answered this call. This was a long hunt, an exhausting one, and I think that we all made mistakes. But I did the biggest one for sure. We had found and eliminated most of the threats, but the main one was deeper. It was the only Windigo left from the den. We went too deep, and it was my call. I was the one in charge of our group of hunters, which is why I made the decision to stay while I sent your parents back to the upper layers. While I was trapped in the Dream Realm, they helped to eliminate the physical threat. We had found the nightmares, but the main Windigo, which had a den so deep in the Dream Realm, also had the possibility to wander the Physical Realm. Mark and Dam-dae managed to find the Physical body of the Windigo. And this also saved me from it in the Dream Realm..."
She took a pause, and the silence felt really heavy in the room. Park Chung-Ho never went to New Brighton, nor had he visited the Dream Realm and its depths. But images had form in his spirit while he listened to the story. But this silence had wiped the pictures away; all that was left was the dark of the room and the fire's light. Diane Nottdottir was breathing heavily. She had told her story a bit earlier, in a shorter version, but the young man could feel she was living it again in a difficult way.
"I'm sorry. Telling me all this is bringing back bad memories, I'm sure. We don't have to go through this if you..."
"I'll tell the end from my side, you already know how things went in the Dream Realm." Sasha said. "When your parents came out, they explained us all what happened. They told us we needed to go get Diane in the Dream Realm. We sent two hunters to seek her. But none of them managed to go that deep. Meanwhile, we had tracked down the Windigo. As the threat on the physical realm was over, we all went in the dream realm. I was the one who were able to go the deepezt among our group. I managed to go to the place where Diane was last seen. But there were no one to be found there anymore. She was even deeper at that time. We had to go back to the Physical Realm. And my grand mother offered a gift to your parents. She was the best shaman on earth. The gift was your dreamcatcher as you probably understood already..."
Park Chung-Ho pulled the vial out of his pocket. He let the fire reflect on the shards in it.
"This is it..." He said. "The story of this dreamcatcher..."
"That's not all of it." Sasha said. "After Diane came back, she appeared in her hometown in Norway and met your parents the same day. They called me to get some informations about the situation as my family already had to handle such situations before. We all knew that we would need to stay alert. A sacrifice in the Dream Realm isn't something that should be done. There's always a price to pay."
"Because nightmares are dangerous?"
"Not only Nightmares, as I told you, but Dreams can change drastically depending on what you sacrificed and how they behave in the Physical Realm. Brings that belongs to the Dream Realm should stay in it."
"Shouldn't people from the Physical Realm stay in their realm too?" Asked the young man
It was Sasha who answered.
"There are théories, coming from a very ancient time, about the Dream Realm being created by people's minds. It seems that we have a part of ourselves, that we call essence that is what we bring in the Dream Realm. But no one knows how this works. It just... Works. This means we aren't strangers to the Dream Realm. But pure essence coming to the Physical Realm is a different thing. Probably because the rules aren't the same in the two Realms. But that is, once more, a theory."
"I get it. Sorry for the interruption."
"It's ok. As I said, we were really worried, and when they saw that something wasn't right, your parents asked me to come. My grand mother took the trip too. She was worried about this story. She saw the baby Aislinn was, and she said we wouldn't be able to know if she would stay a dream or not. As for you... You were just born when things became dangerous with Aislinn's father. Strangely, he seemed to have more interest in you than in his own daughter. We understood why only later. He was jealous of your parents love. Toward you, of course, but hé was jealous of the relation they shared with Diane. As If he wasn't accepted in their mutual friendship. He wanted to use you as a sacrifice to erase your parents from Diane's memory. But my grand mother saw those things before they would happen and she made a rituals with the dreamcatcher so that it would target this threat rather than anything else."
"But... That nightmare was able to attack me in the Physical Realm. Even if it was through someone else, right?"